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FIBA Europe U18 Finland winning Nordic games

The FIBA Europe Pannergy U18 European Championship Women Division B competition this year has a Nordic championship feeling with Denmark, Finland and Norway in the same half of the competition.

Finland were defeated by Sweden during the 2011 Nordic championship (67-69) earlier in the year but are the strongest of the the Nordic teams in Division B.

Finland beat Denmark on day 2 of the preliminary round and booked their place in the quarter-final by beating Norway (72-47).

While the winning margin appears to be impressive the game itself was not very good.

Finland took a total of 80 shoots during the game, 30 more than Norway.

They hit the target 26 times, while Norway went 19-from-50. Both sides also had problems from the free-throw line.

Annika Holopainen (right) led Finland to victory with 24 points while Stine Austgulen was the best scorer from Norway with 20 points.

Latvia led for most of the game against Israel. They fell briefly behind during the final quarter before powering their way to victory (64-58).

Guna Lagzdina was once again leading her team with 18 points and 11 rebounds. But the hero of the day was Renate Reine whose 5 points helped put Latvia back on top during the final quarter. Reine finished the game with 13 points and 3 assists.

For Israel Nof Kedem was the leading scorer with 14 points.

The rest day did not seem to help Greece as they had had a slow start to their match against Denmark. They trailed (12-18) by the end of the first quarter. Yet by half time they were in command (29-23).

Greece paced themselves during the second half of the match to win comfortably (61-42). Vasiliki Tarla had 13 points while Artemis Spanou scored 12 points and collected 13 rebounds while dishing out 3 assists.

Big win for hosts in Group E

Hungary have one foot in the door of the FIBA Europe Pannergy U18 European Championship Division B for Women quarter-final after beating Germany (91-72).

The match was nicely balanced (28-28) at the end of the first quarter. The hosts made their move during the second quarter and by half time lead by 10 points (49-39).

Fanni Szabó caused Germany plenty of problems with her 20 points, 5 steals and 4 assists. Hungary had four other players in double digits.

Sophie Eder led the Germany offensive effort with 18 points.

Maryia Papova (left) was in fine form for Belarus as they beat Portugal (67-37).

Papova scored 14 points, collected 8 rebounds, dished out 3 assists, made two steals and had time for 1 block in her 30 minutes on court. Belarus did most of the damage in the first three minutes of the game (11-2) and had the game won by the end of the first quarter (25-9).

Belarus then paced themselves the rest of the way with good shooting and solid free throwing. Portugal on the other hand a poor shooting day and a miserable time from the free-throw line 4-of-11.

Maryna Ivashchanka was the top scorer in the match for Belarus with 17 points while Hanna Kalenta added 11 points. For Portugal Joana Jesus again led the scoring, this time with 9 points.

Croatia were pushed all the way by Bulgaria. The Bulgarians' three-point shooting kept them on the tail of Croatia for most of the game.

Despite trailing for most of the first quarter Bulgaria finished on top (23-21).

Croatia put together a 7-0 run during the first three minutes of the second quarter to go in front for good. Ivana Tikvic was the leading player with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 5 steals.

For Bulgaria Hristina Tyutyundzhieva - who plays for Tarbes in France - scored 8 points while her team-mate Iva Kostova led the way with 15 points.

The situation in Group E is as follows, Belarus and Croatia have both qualified for the quarter-final while Hungary is one victory away.